Monday, September 27, 2010

Soooo… we are back down to one sheet, with a special “Big Dog” section for Zachary and the majority devoted to Henry (the puppy formerly known as One-of-Ten). I think that will work because the things Zachary is working on take so much more practice that there are far fewer of them.

Other differences:

dark blue font means “new” for this sheet, as green didn’t show up (gee, what a surprise, given that the page is green!)

cute little pencil “bullet” for Training Level’s things – since I list them under my curriculum headings they are scattered about. Makes it easier to find them this way.

No Quiz for a few weeks until he actually learns things, and Zachary will get quizzed on whatever five things I happen to be thinking about when I decide to give the quiz.

Most of the sheet looks like last weeks (keeping in mind that Henry came home on Saturday, so “last weeks” sheet was really just 2 days worth!)

Monday, September 20, 2010

Believe it or not, we worked our tails off this past week! I'm still hopefully to be able to video TL4 Front and TL5 Heel. I wanted to get TL4 Finish as well, but I seemed to have broken Finish trying to get Front. (sigh)

I will probably try testing TL4 Retrieve as well, as "Hold" is so nebulous I'm beginning to think I'm trying for too much.

The bulk of our time was spent on grooming. As I mentioned last week (or so) I have been remiss in my grooming duties, just letting the groomer take care of Zachary things while I lavished my grooming love on Beau. Now I'm missing fussing over a furry friend, so Zachary is learning to be patient.

No photographs this week - I'm out of hard disk space, so until I off load things to thumb drives, I'm stuck. Of course, I'll want to take a zillion pictures of One-of-Ten, so unstuckness needs to happen very, very soon.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Here's my first pass at what I would like little One-of-Ten to learn in his first three months. We will be working on these Life Skills in addition to Sue Ailsby's New Training Levels - Steps to Success.

I will try to remember to update this when he turns 5 months old to more accurately reflect what should have been here, as opposed to my either over or underestimated appraisal of his capabilities!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Continued to work on that "rock back" sit and getting him close for Training Levels Four - Front. He could probably pass at this point, but a few extra days would make it even better.

Zachary learned "Flat" (lie on your side) really fast, and now I'm starting to hold his front paws for a few seconds while he is so positioned in preparation of scissoring his paws. Yes, this is something he should have learned ages ago, but the groomer does a nice job and I was lazy.

Spent way too much time on Vicky's Finger Holding Contest, but we had a good time and it seemed to help, so I guess that's all that matters.

Look for a big change in the worksheet next week (if I can scrounge up the time!) as I try to figure out how to get one-of-ten and Zachary on the same sheet.

The wasn't a problem for Beau and Zachary, as they were "on the same page" (groan) educationally. Obviously, that isn't the case for Zachary and the puppy. I really don't want to have two pages, nor do I want to short change anyone, so this is obviously something that will need further planning.

I've been reading a lot of puppy books, playing a lot with Zachary, and productivity on Training Levels has slowed dramatically, although what we are working on is being well worked on.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Spent a lot of time trying to get rid of the "rock back" sit and replace it with a tuck sit, and it seems to be helping.

Decided that Zachary's husbandry skills were somewhat lacking, as Beau was very patient, allowing me to fuss over his fur at length without comment, so I was kinda lazy and let the groomer take care of Zachary. Now I find I'm missing the fussing (big time) and so Zachary is getting lessons in how to be fussed over.

There are a variety of things that need work, and the big ones on are this week's worksheet.

I haven't created a September Worksheet. I had to miss a month, but I'm torn between coming up with that and doing puppy things, and you can probably guess what's winning.